Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a movie based on Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole series that was released in September 24, 2010. It follows the storyline of The Capture, The Journey and The Rescue. Synopsis Acclaimed filmmaker Zack Snyder makes his animation debut with the fantasy family adventure Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole based on the beloved ''Guardians of Ga'Hoole'' books by Kathryn Lasky. The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining the heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones. Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls. Together they soar across the sea and through the mist to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians—Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms. The film features the voices of Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia, Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Richard Roxburgh, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham. Snyder is directing Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole from a screenplay by John Orloff and Emil Stern, based on the Guardians of Ga’Hoole novels by Kathryn Lasky. The film is being produced by Zareh Nalbandian, with Donald De Line, Deborah Snyder, Lionel Wigram, Chris deFaria, Kathryn Lasky and Bruce Berman serving as executive producers. Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Village Roadshow Pictures Production, an Animal Logic Production, “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.” Opening nationwide in theaters and IMAX on September 24, 2010, the film will be presented in 3D and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. Plot The film opens with Noctus (Hugo Weaving) flying through the skies, swooping down to catch a mouse and eventually returning to a hollow to feed his young. In this hollow, Soren (Jim Sturgess) is seen playing War of the Ice Claws with Eglantine. Soren (wearing a helmet made out of two leaves) is acting out Lyze of Kiel, getting interrupted by Eglantine a few times before stopping to entertain her all with both Noctus and Marella watching. Eglantine says that Soren would let her be Lyze of Kiel on their current act, but Soren quickly dismisses by promising the "next go." Eglantine then plays Metal Beak, ramming Soren before being pushed back. This causes Eglantine's "beak" to break. Noctus then tells the owls that it's time for bed. Kludd (who was disinterested in their "play" all along) complains. Kludd (Ryan Kwanten),doesn't believe the legends at all, being jealous of Soren's natural talent and the attention he gets. After having witnessed Eglantine yarp her first pellet, Soren asks Kludd out for another session of branching. Kludd brushes this off as Soren trying to show off again, so Soren then wants to play "Battle of the Ice Claws" again. Kludd, already fed up of potentially having to hear the tale of the Guardians again, submits. Cut to both landing on a branch, Soren asks Kludd if he could show how he does branches without him getting so angry. His method which involves the Guardians tires out Kludd even more, rolling his eyes at the mention of the Guardians. Having enough when Soren mentions Lyze of Kiel, he kicks Soren, which Soren responds by bumping him back. Both slip from the branch and fall to the ground. They are attacked by a tasmanian devil and then captured by owls working for the evil Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton) and his mate Nyra (Helen Mirren). Soren and Kludd are snatched by two cousins, Long-eared Owls Jatt (Leigh Whannell) and Jutt (Angus Sampson). Both of them are seen talking about how to intimidate others, with stares such as the "Predator" and "Intimidator". Soon, they come across another group of owls with captured owlets. One of them is Grimble, which is subject to a stare, but eventually manages to diss them. The scene now on Soren, Still clutched in the talons of the owls, they soon come across a huge group of other workers for Metalbeak, with other young owlets. Soren meets the Elf Owl Gylfie (Emily Barclay) and her captor, the Boreal Owl Grimble (also Hugo Weaving). They are taken to St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Nyra arrives and makes a speech to the kidnapped owls, explaining that their families have abandoned them and that Metal Beak's "Pure Ones" are their new family. Metalbeak believes that Tytos are pure and strong, and deserve to rule. These owls are encourged to show strength and ruthlessness, and as such are to be trained as soldiers, while the rest will be "pickers". Soren and Gylfie object, and are thus sent to be pickers. Kludd denies his brother, which pleases Nyra and goes away with the Tytos. The pickers are made to sleep under glare of a full moon, which Gylfie explains to Soren that it will induce a sort of hypnotic state that she calls "moon-blinked." Soren and Gylfie help to keep each another awake to avoid this fate. As predicted, the moon-blinked owls are docile and zombie-like the next morning; Soren and Gylfie try to imitate the moon-blinked birds, but Grimble notices their strange behavior, especially with Gylfie walking with her wings open, unlike the others with closed wings. The pickers are guided to the pelletorium, where their labor consists of picking apart owl pellets in search of metal flecks which the prey had eaten before being consumed. En masse, the flecks generate a strong magnetic field which has a peculiar weakening effect on owls' gizzards; they are therefore managed by bats, which are immune to the effect due to their lack of gizzards. Soren discovers soon enough as he was "chosen" as a volunteer to put the fleck into a bucket of flecks after which the supervising bat screeches to call another bat to carry the bucket to a large metal container held open surrounded by blue lines of energy. The scene zooms out to reveal Metal Beak and an unknown owl making plans as a new line of energy extends from the source to the new bucket of flecks arriving. Metal Beak reveals that he will set the trap once enough flecks are amassed and instructs his collaborator to lure their enemies (the Guardians). Metal Beak then promises control over the Western Kingdoms and the Tree to the owl who then departs. Soren and Gylfie make plans to escape, but their planning is interrupted by Grimble and they are marched off to the St. Aggies library. After getting them into the library, Grimble reveals that he wishes to teach them to fly and send them to warn the Guardians of Ga'Hoole of Metal Beak's plans. He also reveals that his family is held hostage against his good behavior, and he has been waiting for owlets clever enough to avoid being moon-blinked. Meanwhile, Kludd and other various Tytos are being trained by Nyra. Nyra releases a blue bird which the Tytos are to catch as an aerial hunting exercise. Kludd uses several dirty tactics (kicking rocks at and causing a red banner to fall on the other owls) and eventually catches the bird. Nyra commends him for his exceptional discipline and suggests that he try to convince Soren to join the Pure Ones. Meanwhile, Nyra and Kludd catch Grimble in the middle of a flying lesson, forcing Grimble to fight the Pure Ones to buy time for Soren and Gylfie to escape. Soren begs Kludd to come with them, but Kludd refuses and joins the fray on Nyra's side, stunning Grimble by his change of allegiance, allowing Nyra to knock him off. While Nyra kills Grimble, Soren and Gylfie are forced dive over the cliff's edge, and just barely escape through a small crack between two giant boulders. After quite a moment of panicked flying in the open, Soren soon feels the wind on his wings and finally realizes that he's flying for real. With a moment of fun together, Soren and Gylfie declare their mission to find the Guardians. Soren then shows off his hunting skills by catching a moth, only to get ticked off by a quirky Burrowing Owl who tells them the difference between hiding first and resting first. After getting Soren's request for a resting place again with Gylfie acting hurt, sympathetic Digger introduces himself and leads him to the hollow. Digger continues to tell Soren and Gylfie about owls getting lost via jokes when the Great Gray Owl Twilight returns, with Mrs. Plithiver (Miriam Margoyles), Soren's nest-maid snake as dinner (which Mrs. P. objects to strongly, calling Twilight a "monstrosity" with Twilight responding "the audacity"). During a moment with Mrs. P and Soren about the kidnapping, Twilight senses "an adventure afoot" and takes out his lute for a song, much to Digger's dislike. Twilight considers himself a bard as much as a warrior and adlibs a poem, to which the Band doesn't like too much. Digger counters by mentioning his owl jokes being "hoot" and threatens to tear his gizzard out at having to hear another of Twilight's "quote-unquote song". Soren carefully tries to sneak out, but Digger catches them. After questioning them on knowing their way to the Sea of Hoolemere, Digger reveals that Twilight knows the way, and the Band sets off to wherein lies the island of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Kludd, under the orders of Nyra, brings Eglantine to St. Aegolius. They witness Metalbeak giving a speech to a large group of red-eyed Pure Ones. When Eglantine proves resistant to Kludd's cajolery, he chooses to make Eglantine a "picker". He tells her to sleep under the gaze of the full moon, moon blinking her. Soren and his band are mobbed by crows on the way to the Sea, and nearly lose Twilight's lute, in which Mrs. Plithiver is riding. The battle brings them to the shore of the Sea of Hoolemere and the home of an Echidna (Barry Otto) mystic; the crows deliberately led them to the meeting so that the Echidna could give them their bearings to the Great Tree (and also tell them their roles in the group). Far out over the ocean, the group encounters a fierce hurricane, and their strength fails, and Digger's wings freeze solid. As Digger falls toward the sea, he is rescued by a pair of enormous Snowy Owls with armored masks - the Guardians of Ga'hoole. They lead the band through the storm and to the Great Tree. Digger's saviors are Boron (Richard Roxburgh) and Barran (Deborra-Lee Furness), the king and the queen of the Tree. They and the ranking officers of Ga'hoole hear Soren's tale in council. The search-and-rescue squadron leader, Allomere, expresses doubts about Soren's story, but battle-scarred Ezylryb defends him and Boron eventually agrees to send a scouting party to St. Aegolious. Soren, Digger, Twilight and Gylfie's training begins. One night, Ezylryb takes them out to learn how to "really fly", using a powerful storm to teach the young owls how to use the wind currents instead of fighting them. Soren briefly masters the technique of flying by instinct, though he loses control when he starts trying to think about what he's doing and nearly falls into the ocean. After the lesson, Ezylryb brings Soren to his hollow to discuss the lesson. While there, Soren discovers that Ezylryb is in fact the legendary warrior Lyze of Kiel; the story of Lyze defeating Metalbeak had been one of Soren's favorite stories. When Allomere and his soldiers arrive at Metalbeak's camp, they are ambushed by the Pure Ones and the energy of the metal flecks is used against them. Allomere barely escapes, carrying two moon-blinked owlets, one of whom is Eglantine. With this proof, the Guardians go to war. Soren reluctantly stays behind to watch over Eglantine, and is thrilled when she finally wakes up. However, she tells Soren that Kludd gave her to Allomere to bring back; which means Kludd and Nyra had planned to ambush them, and Allomere is a traitor. Soren and the band fly off to warn the Guardians against the trap and Allomere's treachery. When the Guardians arrive at St. Aegolious, they are drawn into a trap; Allomere peels off at the last moment and the Pure Ones unleash the power of the flecks against the Guardians, leaving the owls helplessly enervated on the ground. Soren and the band arrive minutes too late, just as Metal Beak and Nyra send the bats to finish off the disabled Guardians. Soren hatches a hasty plan and sends Twilight, Digger and Gylfie to hold back the bats. Soren immediately fetches a pot with a tar-like substance (with some difficulty) and plunges into the buring forest fire (where he finally flies by instinct successfully) to ignite its contents. Meanwhile, Allomere reveals that he betrayed the Guardians based on Metalbeak's promise that Allomere would be the new king of the Tree, but Metalbeak, in response to the unreported support, distrusts and betrays him and orders several bats to kill him, telling him that "there can be only one king." Soren plunges into the flecks' magnetic field to drop the flaming pot on the mechanism which holds open the lids over the flecks; the fire burns through the ropes and the lids slam down, freeing the Guardians. With his plan disrupted, Metalbeak orders the Pure Ones into battle. Ezylryb and Metal Beak square off, as do Soren and Kludd. They both fly into a small tree, and are dangling over the fire. Kludd has the upper wing against Soren, eventually sending them both plummeting into the forest fire, but Kludd breaks his wing on a branch. Dangling over the flames, Soren tries to save him, as he tries to pull his leg up, Kludd tries to throw Soren into the fire. The attempt then breaks Kludd's branch, and he falls instead. Grieving for his brother, Soren sees Metal Beak and Nyra attacking Ezylryb. He becomes enraged at the death of his brother and his hero in the verge of being killed, and flies off with a burning branch to attack. Ezylryb is no match for both Metal Beak and Nyra. Soren arrives just in time to save his life and attacks Metal Beak with the burning branch. The veteran warlord easily overpowers Soren, but he grows overconfident and Soren manages to stab Metal Beak with the flaming branch when he dives at Soren, killing him. A shocked Nyra retreats with the remaining Pure Ones. In the epilogue narrated by Soren, they return to the Great Tree with all the owlets and Soren is greeted by Eglantine and his parents. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger are made Guardians of Ga'Hoole with every owl bowing to them. Soren reveals that Nyra is still out there with a contingent of Pure Ones, hinting at a sequel. As Soren mentions that Kludd's body was never found, Kludd is shown looking at Metal Beak's body and mask, and gains red eyes. The movie ends with Ezylryb and the band flying off into another storm. The credits roll with a shadow-puppetry presentation that summarizes all the events in the story. Differences from the Books Behind the Scenes *Eglantine is dropped in a battle between the Pure Ones and St. Aggie's in the book, but she is taken straight to the Pure Ones' Headquarters in the movie. *Mrs. Plithiver apparently isn't blind like in the books (presumably). *Metal Beak is a Sooty Owl in the movie, but in the book, Sooty Owls were considered the least pure of the Pure Ones. *The band are not pursued by St. Aggie's in the movie, though you could say they were because St. Aggie's and the Pure Ones were combined and the Pure Ones later chased them. *The band do not visit the Mirror Lakes or the Ice Narrows in the movie. *In the movie, the Guardians send off a squadron of owls to St. Aggie's soon after the band arrives. In the book, the Guardians never visited St. Aggie's until The Siege. *The following characters don't appear in the movie: Hortense, Streak, Zan, Elvan, the Barred Owl (because the band already knows the Pure Ones), Skench & Spoorn (Metal Beak and Nyra already rule St. Aggie's), Octavia, Ruby, Martin, Stryker, Uglamore, Wortmore, 47-2, Silver & Nut Beam (there is no Great Downing), Poot, Trader Mags & Bubbles, Madame Plonk, Aunt Finny, Unk, Primrose, Sweetums & Swatums, the obnoxoius Masked Owls, and the rogue smith of Silverveil. *Ezylryb doesn't go missing for a long time in the movie. *Otulissa and Strix Struma are Short-eared Owls in the movie. *Strix Struma and Bubo have much smaller parts in the movie. *Ezylryb tells Soren he is Lyze of Kiel in the movie, while in the book the Band never found that out until Ezylryb had gone. *In the books, Ezylryb never participated in battles since he hung up his battle claws after his mate Lil died. In the movie, Ezylryb is quite the fighter, having fought Metal Beak in the past. But seems to show some remorse about it. *Soren met Nyra when he was just an owlet in the movie. In the books, Nyra doesn't appear until The Siege. *In the movie, all the Guardians fly off to fight Metal Beak. In the book, only the chaw of chaws goes. *Due to Kludd and Metal beak being different owls, Soren's duel is different in the movie. In the book, Soren sets Metal Beak's mask on fire. In the movie, Metal Beak flies in to kill Soren while he is on the ground, but he flies into the burning branch Soren has in his talon, dying instantly. *In the movie, Grimble stated that his family was held hostage by the Pure Ones, while in the book, the St. Aggie's owls were impressed with his fighting skills and permitted him to visit his family three times each year. *In the movie, both Kludd and Soren have begun branching, but in the book, it is only Kludd. *In the movie, there wasn´t a Great Downing. *Digger is transformed from being serious and deep-thinking in the books to an eccentric, high-strung jokester. *In the film, the Pure Ones immobilize the Guardians by setting the flecks on them, in the books, this never happened. *Noctus and Marella were killed prior to The Rescue. In the movie, they go to the Great Tree at the end and greet Soren after he comes back from St. Aggie's. *There is a slipgizzle for the Pure Ones in the tree named Allomere, but in the books it was Dewlap. *In the book, Eglantine is a fully fledged owl when the is brought to the tree, but in the movie Eglantine is always a hatchling. *In the movie, the owls were soliders or pickers at St. Aggie's. In the books there were no soliders and more jobs than picking flecks, *In the books, Nyra wasn't all white with blue eyes. While in the movie, she is completely white, towering over other Barn Owls, and does have blue eyes. In real life, no owl is like that. *When Ezylryb was known as Lyze of Kiel, in the books he didn't have anything to do with Metal Beak. Kludd wasn't even born yet. *In St. Aggie's in the movie, the owls just stood in lines for moon blinking. In the books they did a sleep march and stood in circles. *In the movie, Twilight wasn't bragging about him learning in "the Orphan School of Tough Learning." *In the movie Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger said nothing about their families. *In the movie, it only took one night for owls to be perfectly moon blinked. In the books, it took several nights. *In the movie, there was presumingly no moon scalding chamber. *In the movie, Soren and Gylfie escape from St. Aggies quickly, but in the books it took longer. *In the books, Digger was injured because he was attacked by a crow mobbing, however, in the movie, when the band was crossing the Sea of Hoolemere, Digger's wings freeze solid in a snow storm. *In the movies The Pure Ones trained non-Tytos, but in the books, they shunned them. (although in the thirteenth book, Nyra promotes a Burrowing Owl named Tarn to second-in-command.) *In the movie, nest maid snakes didn't act as tables at the Tree, instead, there were platforms around the tree for eating. *In the book, Strix Struma is an elderly owl, almost as old as Ezylryb. But in the movie, she appears to be much younger. *In the movie, Ezylryb states that the owls of tree know that he is Lyze of Kiel. In the books, however, only Octavia and the Band knew. *In the movie, Lyze of Kiel led the Guardians against Metal Beak. In the books, Lyze of Kiel is from the Northern Kingdoms and had nothing to do with the Guardians. Also, the War of the Ice Claws in the book is shortened to the Battle of the Ice Claws in the movie. *In The Journey there is an owl that has no name, and agrees to go with Bubo and Dewlap to find clues of the Barred Owl's death. Possibly Allomere is the owl with no name, but isn't the traitor. *In the movie, all Pure Ones wore masks. In the books, only Metal Beak wore one. *In The Capture, Jatt and Jutt were killed by the band. In the movie, the owls only battle the Pure Ones later. *In the books, Jatt is jealous of Jutt, while in the movie, they are quite friendly to each other. *There is no battle with the bobcat. *It is possible that Allomere is actually Elvan, as they are both Great Grays. *There is no harp guild in the movie. *In the books and in real life, male owls are smaller than females, but it shows that Barran is smaller than Boron, Nyra is smaller than Metal Beak, and Noctus and Marella are the same size. *In the books, the band and Otulissa are already in chaws before the battle, though the chaw might have been when Soren was sent into a twister. If so, Gylfie and the other members of the band weren't in the same chaw. *Soren and the band are made Guardians early in the movie, while in the books they are made Guardians in the prologue of The Burning. *Mrs Plivither has eyes in the movie, but doesn't in the books. *Allomere mentioned the Western Kingdoms of being his. In the books, there was no mention of them. *In the movie, Eglantine had come to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree moon blinked, while in the books, she came stone-stunned along with the rest of the owlets in the Great Downing * In the books, Strix Struma was a ryb of navigation. In the movie, she appears to be in charge of a fighting chaw known as "Strix's battle chaw". Video Game ﻿A video game of the same name was released September 14, 2010. It is available for Xbox 360, Plastation 3, Nintendo DS and Wii. Trivia *In the beginning of the movie, when Eglantine is gazing at a picture of the Great Ga'hoole Tree, the picture is identical to the illustration of the Tree in the books. *Oddly, the Pure ones moon blink owls that aren't related to Tytos, however, owls such as Jatt, Jutt, and Grimble, Long Eared owls and a Boreal owl, are not moonblinked, showing as they still have their free will.﻿ *In an interview with Zack Snyder, he states that, since the movie/books take place in a world in which humans are extinct, you can see the Statue of Liberty in the beginning of the movie if you look closely. *During the montage at the tree, Twilight is the one playing "To the Sky". *It was the Bill Hunter's (Bubo's voice actor) final film before he died on May 21, 2011. Voices Photo Gallery trailer01.jpg|The Great Ga'hoole Tree trailer02.jpg|Barran trailer03.jpg trailer04.jpg|Lyze of Kiel trailer05.jpg|Soren trailer06.jpg|Pure One Soldier trailer07.jpg|Pure Ones Soldiers trailer08.jpg|Tyto Forest (with Marilla) Barran helmet.png|Barran trailer10.jpg|Noctus trailer11.jpg|Kludd and Soren trailer12.jpg trailer13.jpg|Eglantine and Soren trailer14.jpg trailer15.jpg trailer16.jpg trailer17.jpg|St. Aggies Canyons trailer18.jpg trailer20.jpg|Ezylryb trailer21.jpg trailer22.jpg|Soren flying through a storm trailer23.jpg trailer24.jpg|Gylfie trailer25.jpg|The Band flying trailer26.jpg We're halfway there!.png|Digger and Gylfie trailer28.jpg trailer29.jpg|Parliament trailer30.jpg ezylryb.jpg|Ezylryb Metalbeak2.PNG|Metal Beak Strix Struma.png|Strix Struma (Legend of the Guardians) Bubo2.png|Bubo GrassMasked Owl.png|Possible Masked/Grass Owl Soren encounters Boron.png|Soren encounters with Boron Category:Movie Category:The Capture Category:The Journey Category:The Rescue